Went to the range today to test a bunch of different types of ammo to see what shot best out of my Bergara BMR 22 LR. I had 10 different types of ammo and shot 5 shots of each shooting 5 shot groups in no particular order letting the barrel cool for about 2 mins between groups.
Turns out the rifle like Federal Target and CCI Mini-Mags the best followed closely by Norma Tac 22. Both Remington Target, Cyclone and High Velocity were horrible. Aguila and CCI Std Velocity were OK but nothing to brag about. The three different Win types I shot generally shot good but each one had a flyer. More shooting would have to determine if they were inconsistent.
All ammo was shot at 50 yards using a Caldwell Bipod and sand bags on the butt. Rifle has a very nice trigger and is topped with a Leupold 4.5 - 14X Vari X III.
I appreciate your post. Good job!
I enjoy whenever anyone does their own evaluations/testing.
It never ceases to amaze me how almost every rifle has a favorite & too, a dislike as well! (Funny how sometimes one gun's pride is another gun's curse. I guess we've all seen that)
IMO: We did a 2+ year ammo study using every .22 rifle & handgun that we could bring, shooting in ALL types of weather ranging from single digits & hard snow to 100° summer drought to rain in all temps.
As amateurs we evaluated firing & feeding/loading reliability as well as accuracy from 20 feet to 250 yards. We used revolvers, semi-auto pistols, bolt action single shot & repeating rifles, semiauto rifles as well as very old & brand new ones. We stored ammo cold, damp, hot & dry, as well as aged & new, trying to be as fair as possible within our limited parameters - really mixing it up. (While I TRY to never bash nor promote any brands I sometimes reply or answer someone and then as honestly as possible)
IMO: OUR findings were that our Remington Round Nose Golden Bullets were OUR favorite overall contender with the standard Federal blue box right on it's heels! (Both 40 grain) Some types of CCI, Aguila & Winchester tested were all VERY close.
Please keep in mind that perhaps your favorite brand/weight/type of ammo was not even tested due to local availability & in that same light - fewer than 8 brands of firearms were used. Sorry that we couldn't include many more but hey - we're poor, we have other things to do & ammo was hard to get sometimes!
I cannot list all of the ammos used. We used several different brands & models of firearms. Other than many ammo snarls, (hey....we shot a few THOUSAND rounds!), anazingly only one weapon* disappointed early-on & it was quickly disqualified!
We did all this at considerable cost of personal time & money to ourselves & no one else. We solicited no funding, firearms or ammo from any businesses or companies. We hot no kick-back from anyone. (In closing there was one funny quirk, though this is not an endorsement: Of all the handgun, rifle & ammo combos that we used we DID seem to find a rifle that "appeared" to have little or no favorite .22 ammo, (at least that we could discern), shooting remarkably well with anything that we chambered & that was a couple of little xxxxxx xxxxxxx. They chewed, swallowed & "digested" anything that we shoved down their throats) In all fairness, these are single shot bolt actions with very little to go wrong.
Again, we attempted to evaluate everything, not just accuracy. We limited the number of shooters to only 2 in an effort to minimize differences in people's abilities.
We were amateurs being as honest & unbiased as possible with what we could procure & all tests were outdoors. (I only wish that one of the magazines would do an as in-depth, 2+ years long, test in ALL seasons/weather using even more ammos & even more brands of firearms than we did. Heck, it would likely fill an entire issue.
*This was a vintage, long-ago discontinued brand of rifle.
